Incarcerated persons comprise about 0.4% of the Croatian population, of whom 25-30% misuse drugs. We attempted to determine the structure of the prison population, prevalence of HBV, HCV, HIV markers, co-infections with HBV, HCV and HIV and acute HBV, HCV and HIV infection. In total, 25.9% of prisoners were positive for some markers for viral hepatitis (HBV 11.3%, HCV 8.3%, HBV/HCV 6.3%). Prevalence of HBV infection in intravenous drug users (IDUs) was 26.2% (highly promiscuous group 20.4%, individuals with psychiatric diseases and personality disorders 16.0%). HCV infection in IDUs was 52.0% and 4.9% in the highly promiscuous group. HBV/HCV co-infection was registered in 34.9% of prisoners positive for HBV markers (203/582). Acute HBV infection was detected in 0.5%, and HCV in 1.2%. Only 0.15% (5/3348) of prisoners were anti-HIV positive. It appears that individuals with psychiatric diseases and personality disorders could be an additional risk population for these viral infections.

Short historical overview of criminological theories with a spatial componentMajority of criminological theories are based on researching the offender, the victim or the situation in which a criminal act has been committed and these theories have been developed under the influence of psychological and sociological trends Abstract A link between human geography and criminology has been established as a result of the development of strong parallel that has existed in science for decades, similar to how criminology was predominantly put in the focus of sociology due to the series of paradigm shifts. Cognitive mapping, environmental perception and values and meanings attributed to "place", "space" and "environment" have constructed a framework for interaction between criminology and human geography and for development of geography of crime. Spatial data analysis through geographic information systems is becoming more popular in crime mapping and crime analysis in contemporary police organizations and their usage is limitless. Geographic information system as an analytical instrument is also used for pattern analysis or for analysis of spatial crime distribution model and for researching spatial relations between crime and other demographic and socio-economic factors by using visual representation of spatial data. Along with usual implementation of traditional methods, geographic information systems contribute in directing crime investigations to a certain area of probable locations of residence, other activities and the offender's itinerary. Due to its significant impact on the quality of police work, as well as policy and decision making on operational, tactical and strategic levels, modern police organizations use GIS in their daily work in order to prevent and reduce crime rates.

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